To see the video of Jack reading this prayer, please click here.
I do not know about you, but I am getting very weary of my new normal with COVID 19, a new normal which has gotten old in a hurry.
I can clearly identify with everyone in America wanting to resume normal activities, going to restaurants, to the beach, to music concerts, and to be with friends. I see large crowds of people protesting racial inequality and injustice. In some cities, like Houston, there are literally thousands of protesters who all seem to be wearing masks. Others, in crowds in which it is hard to see a mask being worn at all.
When I see people wearing masks, I remember the television heroes of my childhood. The Lone Ranger. Zorro. Those heroes were fictional. Then, there were the other heroes in my life who wore masks. The surgeons. The anesthesiologists. The nurses in the operating room. All who stood over me as I was administered anesthesia to put me to sleep before surgery and who wore them during each of my several five-hour operations.
I am sure those masked medical staff disliked the protocols they followed and having to endlessly wash their hands and wear masks. But, after all, they were healers. They were not wearing masks to protect themselves from me. Rather, they wore masks to protect me from being infected by them. I am certain that day in and day out these masked medical caregivers grew weary and disliked the inconvenience of doing these things to keep me and their patients safe. But, they did so anyway.
As you and I grow tired and weary about what is being asked of us to endure in the coronavirus Pandemic, we are now seeing the alarming increase of hospitalizations and cases throughout America. There has been talk about a second wave of the coronavirus coming. But, we have not even exited the first wave of the virus which has taken over 120,000 lives. Lives that mattered to their loved ones. When will it ever end? How long can we go on this way until there is a vaccine? How long must we adorn masks that fog our eyeglasses or make us uncomfortable?
To that end I think about Galatians 6:9: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
When I ask why should I or anyone else wear a mask or continue to refrain from returning to normalcy in the face of the resurgence of the coronavirus, I find purpose in reading the words of John 15:12: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
So, I say, when you are weary of assuming the role of a masked hero to others, remember God’s promise that you will be rewarded in your perseverance.
God has given each of us free will. You and I have a choice to do as God would have us do. One of the hardest things for us to do is follow God’s will instead of ours. We each have a choice to wear a mask in public or not wear a mask at all.
We also have a choice to pray to ask God for reassurance that wearing a mask imparts to others the love God has given us. Will wearing a mask in our comings and goings clothe others with the kind of love God has given us?
We can each find strength in Scripture, in God’s example, and in receiving answers to our prayers.
God, we ask that You give of us the strength and the perseverance to be strong in the face of this Pandemic. In that strength may we each be rewarded now and in the future as You have promised us in Scripture.
God, may we pray to You each day to ask for Your reassurance that the burden of wearing a mask to protect others mirrors our duty to love others as You have loved us?
God, please help us turn away from our human voices to do as we want to do and not wear a mask. Please open the ears of our hearts to listen to Your call to be Your love on Earth and to think more of others than ourselves.
God, please help us to honor You and show our faith in You by acting as Your loving masked heroes to others on Earth as You love all of us in Heaven. Amen
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Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.
John and I read your prayer together. Thank you for writing it. It was lovely.
Lisa and John